Game 112 // Ninth Inning, Los Angeles // The Yasiel Puig Moment

“The home run that Puig hit in Miami on the first day of the second half—a seminal moment of his career.”

Sixty seconds before seminal moment 2.0. So you get to thinking, as Yasiel Puig steps into the box, what’s might be that most seminal of seminal Yasiel Puig moments?

You’ve got the starter moment, the Puig being Puig. Puig the dancer, Puig the trickster. With number five you’ve got: The Ryu Noogie.

You’ve got the Puig as fight-starter, braggadocio Puig. Giants-killer. Baumgarner-irritant. Take a pitch and home-run Puig.

You’ve got Walk-off Puig. Slide into home plate Puig. “Wild horse has led the team to the barn” Puig.

You’ve got Debut Week Puig. 9-3 Walk-Off Double Play Put-Out Puig.

And then, you have End of Story Puig. Laser from the Warning Track Puig. Bo Jackson Puig.

Oh, and that moment they’d mentioned on the broadcast? Maybe the greatest of the all-Puig photography annals. Game one after the All-Star break, this year, the greatest season in modern Dodgers history. Puig winning one in the host city, hitting a three-run come-from-behind winner into the Home Run Sculpture in Miami. The dugout going wild—like a painting of L.A. Dodgers perfection.

And so, tonight, we have our guy. Again. Another seminal Yasiel Puig moment at his fingertips.

Dodgers down one. Bottom of the ninth. Exactly fifty games over .500. Fifty. Fifty! Going for fifty-one. Runners on first and third. Yasiel Puig at the bat.

A rematch of the 1959 World Series, that rare interleague matchup that’s brought the White Sox out to Los Angeles.

The fans still into it, chanting, cheering—as you would when your team’s at 83 wins and counting.

The season after the Puig demotion, the Kershaw injury, the Vin Scully retirement, the Dave Roberts debut, the speeding past the Giants for the NL West title, the Game 5 against the Nationals, the almost-berth into the 2016 World Series.

Pure perfection this time around, a full 38.0 games ahead of the Giants.

So Puig is up. Down one, with Forsythe having doubled home Bellinger after two brilliant at-bats.

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An oral history of the 1968 World Series, composed entirely of interviews with each of the remaining players. Al Kaline, Willie Horton, Denny McLain, Orlando Cepeda, Tim McCarver, Mickey Stanley and many more. Due out for the 50th anniversary of the Series—August, 2018.